


Bitch 'n' Stitch

by speccygeekgrrl



Series: lovers from the moon [2]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Don't Examine This Too Closely, Don't Try This At Home, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Jonah Heston miracle worker, Jonah saves the day, Kinga is sick, Max needs help, Multi, People who really should not be doing what they are doing but have no choice about it, emergency surgery, not that kind of help, not that kind of sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 01:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11452776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: Kinga comes down with a bad case of probably-gonna-die and Max recruits the only competent help available. Jonah's happy to help, as usual, but solving this problem is not going to be as simple as the last time he was called in to help. Still, he's a DIY king, and surgery is just basically arts and crafts on a human body, right?  ....right?





	Bitch 'n' Stitch

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to let the first story stand alone, but then when I got this idea I realized it would work best as a sequel to that one. You don't HAVE to read the porn to read this one but it'll make more sense that way. I am a shameless OT3 shipper in most of my fandoms so it's sort of inevitable that I'd come back to them as a trio anyways. I don't know where the idea came from or what the hell I think I'm doing but I'm having fun with it so HERE WE GO!

Usually the experiments started promptly at half past noon on Sundays. Jonah was on the bridge at 11:30, helping the bots playtest their new board game, waiting patiently to be grabbed for the show open. Noon-thirty came and went. They finished one round of the game and started another with tweaked rules, and finished that too. By 2:30, Jonah was starting to get worried, and he called down to Moon 13 just to find out what the hell was going on. No one answered.

"I don't like this," he muttered, and Crow rolled his eyes.

"So you get a day off. What's wrong with that?"

"Where are they? What if something bad happened? What if I'm stuck up here and no one knows about me and I just die?"

"You're not going to die," Tom sighed. "Jeez, someone's catastrophizing hard. You should really just relax."

"Easy for you to say," Jonah said, and then the red light flashed and he hit the button immediately.

"Hey," Max said. He looked rough around the edges, shadows under his eyes and his hair a mess. "Uh... if we forgo the experiment for today, do you think you could... maybe come down here and help me?"

"Help you with what?" Jonah asked.

"Kinga's sick... like really sick. I've been taking care of her but I'm so worn out right now."

"Why aren't you sick too?"

"High constitution stat," Max said with a pale smile, "and a hell of a lot of hand sanitizer. It's actually driving me kind of crazy, I'm a germophobe but no one else here can do anything helpful."

"Where's Synthia?"

"Oh, god, you don't even want to know what happened when Synthia tried to help," Max groaned, wincing like the memory pained him. "Suffice to say that's not an option."

"I don't want to get sick, either."

"If you do, we'll take care of you," Max said. " _Please_ , Jonah. I'm at my wits' end."

"You guys owe me so hard," Jonah said, and the bots gasped.

"You're not going to do it, are you?" Crow asked, sounding appalled.

"They've been torturing you," Tom reminded him, and Jonah patted them both on the shoulder.

"Sometimes it's worth being the bigger person in a bad situation. I won't be gone for long, okay? You guys behave yourselves."

"Yeah right," Crow muttered, and Jonah sighed, knowing he'd most likely return to absolute chaos.

"Don't burn the place down," he said firmly. "And stay out of my room!" It had been harder to keep them out of there since the Mads made good on their promise to upgrade his living situation after the last favor he'd done for them, now that he had an actual bed (one that fit his whole lanky frame!) instead of just a hammock. At least they'd seemed to accept his flimsy excuse for why it had happened.

"We'll see," Crow said as the tube descended to take Jonah away. It deposited him in the Backjack like usual, but the only one there was Max, who looked even worse in person.

"You look absolutely exhausted," Jonah said sympathetically, and Max nodded.

"I'm so tired. Her fever keeps spiking every couple hours and I just... I can't sleep when she's in such bad shape, what if she got a lot worse while I was asleep?"

"What's wrong with her?"

"I'm so far from a medical professional, you're asking the wrong person. According to the internet it's either appendicitis, cancer, or she's been taking street drugs..."

"Shouldn't she see a doctor?" Max fixed Jonah with a tired, unamused glare.

"Yeah, let me just ring up the friendly home visit moon doctor. Of course she should, but it's not like we have a lot of access to medical care up here!" Jonah lifted his hands defensively.

"Hey, I'm not trying to insult your intelligence. I just don't think the two of us can handle something serious."

"No kidding," Max sighed. "She's been sick since we woke up yesterday. I sent out an SOS to her grandmother hoping that Brain Guy can get a doctor up here, but who knows if Pearl will ever even receive it. I'm just... doing the best I can with what we have. And I'd rather ask for your help than keep trying to take care of her myself and maybe fail her catastrophically."

"I don't mind helping," Jonah said, and Max gave him a weak smile.

"Thank you. Seriously. You didn't have to agree and I'm just... really, really grateful that you did."

"You're welcome," Jonah said, squeezing Max's shoulder briefly. "Let's see the patient, I guess." The last time Jonah had been lead down this hallway, he'd gotten more than he bargained for. He never would have believed it from what he'd seen from the SOL, but behind closed doors, Kinga and Max were... kind of adorable, actually. Goofy and in love and nothing like Jonah had expected. He'd thought he'd get thrown out once they were done with him, but instead they'd taken a very cuddly nap and then had a surprisingly nice pseudo-date on Moon 14. Some wary part of Jonah had wondered if they were just looking for weaknesses to use against him, but neither of them had so much as alluded to it in the two experiments since then, and Kinga had made good on all her promises to him. They paused outside her bedroom door, and Max rubbed his eyes and sighed.

"I'm trying to hold it together for her sake but I'm so out of my depth."

"We'll figure this out," Jonah said firmly. "Everything's going to be fine." He hoped he wasn't lying. Max looked like he wanted to believe him but couldn't quite do it. They came in the bedroom to find Kinga flat on her back in bed in a sweat-soaked tank top and shorts. She turned her head and her mouth dropped open when she saw them.

"Jonah? Why are _you_ here?"

"Max needed backup. How do you feel?" Jonah put his hand on her forehead and his eyes widened. "Jeez, you're burning up."

"I feel like hell."

"Can you be more specific?" Kinga hovered a hand over her belly, slightly to her right.

"This hurts, sometimes dull and sometimes sharp, I'm all cramped up, I've been puking..." She let her hand fall back to the bed. "I think I hear my dad's voice. Am I dying?"

"You're not dying," Max said, taking her hand in his. "You're not allowed to die."

"You don't make the rules," she said, and his lips quirked in the barest hint of a smile.

"No, you agreed on this one though. Don't you remember? I'm allowed to die, you're not."

"Ugh, fine..." Jonah arched a brow at this exchange, and bit his lip for a second.

"I have an idea of what's wrong," he said, "and it's pretty bad given where we are." He found himself on the receiving end of two intense gazes and swallowed. "This looks like exactly what happened to me when I got appendicitis in high school."

"Oh," Kinga said. "I _am_ dying. Sorry, baby..."

"No," Max said, bracing a hand against the bed to keep himself upright. "There has to be something we can do. Please." He looked up at Jonah, desperation in his gaze. " _Please_."

"I can try something super risky and she might die... Or we can do nothing and she almost definitely will die." Jonah shrugged. "I can't make that call."

"Do it," Kinga said immediately. "I'll take a slim chance over no chance."

"I don't suppose you have anything remotely like a surgical kit here..."

"What kind of mad scientist do you think I am?" She sounded as offended as she could in that much pain. "Of course I have surgical equipment. I mean, I haven't used most of it, but I had plans to..."

"Probably for the best," Jonah said. "Second thing I don't suppose you have... anaesthetic?"

"We have lidocaine," Max said. "Cause she stole some patches from her grandmother."

"Snitch," Kinga said. "General anaesthetic works less on redheads anyways. Local's the best option, probably."

"Oh, jeez, you mean you're going to be awake and criticizing me while I do this?"

"I'll have the chance to bitch you out before I die if you fuck it up."

"I'll do my best to prevent that," Jonah said dryly. "Antibiotics?"

"None of those," Max said. "Uh, antibiotic ointment for scrapes and stuff, but not like pills."

"Okay. Not ideal but better than I thought a minute ago." Jonah bit a finger thoughtfully, studying Kinga and Max for a moment, wondering if he could really pull off what he was about to attempt. _Of course you can,_ he told himself. _You're a goddamn rock star of science. Just stay calm and keep your hands steady and save a life. Easy peasy._ "I need like an hour to watch appendectomy videos on YouTube and then... we probably shouldn't wait much longer, if this has been going on since yesterday morning."

"You're going to learn by _YouTubing_ it?" Max went paper-pale, a complete contrast to Kinga's overly-flushed skin. "Oh god. This is--"

"Do _not_ say it," Kinga hissed, flinging a hand over his mouth. "Don't. Don't jinx it. Just... get Jonah everything he needs to do this. You're his second banana for this purpose." Max's jaw dropped, and he sputtered for a second before nodding.

"I... okay. Yes. Whatever you say." He bent to kiss her sweaty forehead, then straightened and looked at Jonah with as much resolve as Jonah had ever seen in him. "Come with me." He lead Jonah back down the hall and to an elevator Jonah hadn't noticed before. "The lab is a couple levels up." He still looked pale and unsteady, and Jonah reached out to touch his shoulder.

"Are you going to be okay?" Jonah asked.

"That depends on whether she's going to be okay," Max said. "She's... literally everything to me. Everything that matters. You're not just holding _her_ life in your hands now."

"No pressure or anything," Jonah said uncomfortably, and Max shrugged.

"She said I'm your second banana for this. She's never said anything even remotely like that before in her life. I don't... I don't know if I can go on without her."

"Come on, she'd want you to keep going. Hell, she'd probably want you to keep on with the experiments."

"No she wouldn't," Max said. "She'd want me to burn this place to the ground and sacrifice myself in the flames of her Viking funeral."

"...but let me go first, right?" Jonah said hopefully. Max twisted his hand in the neck of Jonah's jumpsuit and yanked him down to stare at him meaningfully.

"Jonah Heston, I swear to god, if you don't save her, no one's going to save you." Jonah gulped at the steel in Max's eyes, instantly revising his estimation of Max from "mostly harmless marshmallow" to "second scariest thing on Moon 13."

"I promise I'm going to do everything I possibly can for her," he said. "I wasn't asking if you'd let me go because I was going to let her die. I'm not that fucked up."

"My experience of Gizmocrats is that most of them are that fucked up," Max said.

"Yeah, well, I was in the protagonist career track, not the villain career track. Anyways... I might... kind of sort of give a damn about her." Max's eyes widened, and then widened more when Jonah added, "and you."

"You... you what?"

"I care what happens to you idiots, okay? You're not what I thought you were three weeks ago. I want her to be okay. I want you both to be okay." He disengaged Max's hand from his clothes and squeezed it between both of his. "If I didn't care, I wouldn't have agreed to help."

"Well... you... okay," Max stuttered, obviously taken aback. "Uh. Thanks? I think?"

"Just show me what I need to do what I need to do," Jonah said. "You can thank me after I pull it off." Max nodded and lead Jonah down another hall to a surprisingly modern looking laboratory. Moon 13 looked pretty haphazard for the most part, but this room was all clean white walls and shiny steel surfaces. Max went for a cabinet and fumbled through a few drawers before coming out with a sterile-packed kit of surgical tools.

"We'd been focusing on the gene manipulation," he said wistfully. "She was going to start surgical modification after she'd come as far as she could with the genetics."

"Please don't elaborate," Jonah said. "I really don't want to know."

"Laser-mounted dinosaurs," Max said, and Jonah sighed.

"Goddammit, that sounds awesome."

"I know, right?" Max lead Jonah through a set of doors into a small office and waved at the computer. "Password is "forrestersrule", all lowercase, no space, Forrester has three r's."

"Seriously?"

"It's a relic from her dad's lab. She thinks it's hilarious."

"What, the computer?"

"No, just the password. Come on, get to it. I'll find the rest of the stuff and bring it down here. You need to... oh, Christ."

"What?"

"You need to teach yourself emergency abdominal surgery to save the life of the only person I've ever loved." Max made a sound suspiciously close to a sob and dropped his head into his hands. "Oh, this is so many years of bad karma hitting all at once. And I'm so tired I'm not sure I'm not hallucinating it."

"Look, you find the stuff and bring it here, then go back to Kinga and take a nap next to her. I need you to not be shaking with exhaustion if I need a nurse."

"Wh-what? No, I can't help with this. I faint at the sight of blood."

"Max." Jonah put his hands on Max's shoulders and shook him a little. "Max. Look at me." Max looked up and Jonah met his eyes. "I can't do this by myself. If this has even a percent of a chance of working it will only be if you help me. I know it sucks. I know you're freaking out. I know it's going to be one of the hardest things you ever do." Max nodded. "But you need to do it. If we're going to save Kinga, we both have to work together."

"I'll try," Max said weakly. Jonah smiled and kissed his forehead.

"We can do this. We can. I believe that we can do this. Do what you need to do, and then go be with her for a while, okay?" Max looked more confused than anything, but he nodded again and left Jonah alone in the office. Jonah sat down at the desk and dropped his head into his hands with a sigh. "God, I hope we can do this," he muttered, and went to start his crash course in surgery. Luckily, his Gizmonic credentials were still good, and their medical databases were terrifyingly cutting-edge (well, more like bleeding-edge), and he'd always been a quick study. This... was nothing like the DIY he was used to doing, but he couldn't spare any room for doubt in his mind. He had to have faith in himself, or this was doomed before they even got started.

It took more than an hour for him to feel like there was more than a prayer of making this work, but finally he stood up from the computer and rolled his neck until it popped. Max had set everything they'd need out neatly in the lab, even coming up with a few things Jonah hadn't thought of but that would come in handy, and he nodded in approval. He rearranged things for a moment, spread out a sheet on the table he'd be testing his barely-acquired skills on, and went to fetch his patient and his nurse.

Max was curled up on Kinga's bed, not touching her except for the back of his hand brushing against her arm. He didn't stir when Jonah came in, but Kinga turned her head to look at him, glassy-eyed with pain. "I sort of hope this kills me," she said very quietly, and Jonah frowned at her.

"Apparently if you die Max is making sure we all die with you, so I really hope not." She half-smirked.

"I didn't tell him to do that."

"No? I’m surprised to hear that. It seems like a you thing to say."

"No. But that's why I love him."

"You guys are batshit crazy and I don't know why I'm not scared."

"You're the one who has nothing to be scared of right now. Pretty sure you could take him out before he took you out."

"Let's not go there," Jonah said. He brushed her hair back from her face and she turned her flushed cheek into his hand with a sigh. "Are you ready for this?"

"No time like the present," she said. He reached over her to shake Max awake.

"Max. Rise and shine, time to seal our fates." Max groaned and rolled onto his back, rubbing his eyes.

"Ugh."

"Make a cup of coffee or something."

"No... no, I had the coffee before I laid down. Power nap. Lifehack." He sat up slightly, blinking, and he did look more clear-headed than he had earlier. "Kinga... are you sure you're ready?"

"The next person who asks me that is going to eat my inflamed appendix," she growled, and both of the men winced. "Yes, either end this pain or put me out of my misery."

"Come on, then," Jonah said, and he carefully scooped Kinga into his arms, trying his best not to hurt her any more, though the change in position made her cry out in pain. Max went ahead of them, holding doors open and watching them both with worry in his eyes as they went up on the elevator. When Jonah set Kinga down on the lab table, Max held her hands for a moment, and she pulled their clasped hands up to kiss the back of his.

"We're going to save you," he told her, and he actually sounded like he believed it. "I love you too much to keep going without you."

"If this doesn't work... let Jonah go," Kinga said. "I know he's going to do everything he can. Don't hurt him if everything he can do isn't enough."

"As you wish, my queen," Max said. Jonah let out a silent sigh of relief and rolled the tray of necessary tools over to her, unwrapping a lidocaine patch.

"Max, can you move her clothes? I just need that whole area bare... yeah, perfect." Very carefully, he pressed it into place, and Kinga yelped at the pressure. “Sorry, sorry… tell me when it hurts less, okay?” He bustled around getting everything else ready while the drugs sank into her skin, and by the time he came back with iodine wipes most of the pain had vanished from her expression. “How do you feel now?”

“Still bad, but not bad in that spot any more. I think it’s time.” Jonah and Max went to scrub up, and then came back in clean lab coats and latex gloves, the best they could do in place of scrubs on short notice. 

“Okay. Kinga, you need to stay as absolutely still as possible, okay? Don’t lift your head to see what I’m doing, just lie there. Please. Max, keep an eye on her and tell me if she loses color or passes out or anything I should know.” Jonah peeled off the lidocaine patch and disinfected Kinga’s skin, then reached for a scalpel and sent off a tiny prayer to the gods of pulling insane stunts out of thin air. “Okay. Here we go.”

Sometimes, when Jonah was really focused on a project, he’d get into the flow zone and lose track of time until it was finished. He hadn’t expected this to get him in the flow zone, but when that hyper-focus washed over him he surrendered to it, knowing his hands would be steady and his eye for detail impeccable until he was done. He tuned out Max’s quiet words of reassurance, tuned out the last vestiges of doubt whispering in his own mind, tuned out everything that didn’t help him with the task at hand. It wasn’t the first time he’d tried something difficult without adequate tools or preparation… it was just the most critically significant time he’d done so.

Finally, he tied off the last stitch and ran his thumb alongside the line of them, checking his work. “Kinga? How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve just been cut open and sewed up,” she said, sounding exhausted. “Are you done?”

“Yeah. It’s finished.” Max turned slightly to look at Jonah, glanced down at the tray with her appendix lying on it, blanched, and looked back at Kinga quickly.

“You survived,” he said, and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Wow.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“I was almost sure he’d fuck something up,” he said, and then added, “no offense, Jonah.”

“I mean, I’m still offended, but I understand,” Jonah said, peeling off his bloody gloves and pushing up the glasses that had slid down his nose about thirty seconds after he made the incision. “I’ll admit I’m a little surprised too.”

“So none of us actually thought this would work but we all did it anyways,” Kinga said. “Go team.”

“Hey, you’re the one who told me to do it.” Jonah came around her other side and touched her forehead gently. “You already feel less feverish. Do you want to go back downstairs?”

“Yeah, this is uncomfortable as hell,” she said, and sighed when he picked her up again, curling into his chest as he carried her back to her own bed. She wrinkled her nose as he set her back down on her sweat-stained sheets.

“The sheets need to be changed… as do my clothes… and god, I need a shower.”

"You can't get the incision wet."

"I don't care. Tape plastic over it. I need a fucking shower."

"Can you even stand up?" Max asked, and she glared weakly at him.

"Jonah can hold me up... He's done it before," Kinga said. "If you don't help me, I'll make you suffer later."

"Nice to see you showing some of your usual spirit," Jonah said. "I'll help. You'll feel a lot better after you're clean."

"If you're sure," Max said.

"I'm sure. I need a shower, a solid night's sleep, and then some solid food after I feel like a human being again." Jonah helped her out of bed, steadying her as she swayed against him. She looked all the way up at him with a smile. “Gosh, you're a tall stack of flapjacks. Ohh, Max, you have to make me pancakes later."

"Of course, my love." Max kissed her and went ahead to find what they needed to keep the stitches dry. Kinga managed four small steps with Jonah's help before he suddenly found himself bearing all of her weight, and he set her down on the bed they still hadn't cleared.

"Do you need me to carry you to the shower?" She nodded, too wrung out to be proud. He gathered her in his arms for the third time that day, but for the first time she put her arms around his neck.

"Thank you," she said, resting her head on his shoulder.

"No problem."

"No... Thank you for saving my life, Jonah."

"Well, I was pretty sure that Max would have killed me if I hadn't."

"It's not his nature."

"You've never seen him threatened with the loss of you before, have you? He would have torched the entire moon if you died."

"That's... That's so romantic," she murmured, and Jonah shook his head. Maybe he gave a damn about them, but they were pretty twisted. By the time they made it to the bathroom Max had beaten them there, with fabric tape and plastic wrap, and they waterproofed the small incision site with just a few winces from Kinga. She leaned against the sink while they all stripped down, tired but not too tired to leer at both of them as they got naked.

The bathroom had a large glassed-in shower stall instead of a tub. All three of them easily fit in there: Jonah holding up Kinga, who was draped back against him with her eyes shut and her face turned up to the spray, Max standing in front of her, running his fingers through her hair to rinse out the sweat that had turned it lank. She tried to insist on washing her own hair but swooned against Jonah after only a few seconds of having her arms raised.

"Just relax," Max breathed. "Let us take care of you, okay?" She nodded and he kissed her softly. "We've got you." He took over shampooing her hair, nails scritching against her scalp and fingers gently working the suds up, careful to get every inch of her hair completely clean. She made a quiet pleased sound and put her hands on Max’s hips, smiling at him dazedly.

“You’re wonderful. You’re both wonderful,” she said, tilting her head back against Jonah’s chest for a moment. 

“We just want you to feel better,” Jonah said, hugging her carefully with the arm he had around her. “You scared the hell out of Max and I was really concerned about you.”

“You were?”

“Well, yeah. You’re not just a crazy mad scientist, you’re _my_ crazy mad scientist.”

“Oh, Jonah, you’re sweet.” Max gave Jonah a look over Kinga’s head and Jonah smiled at him.

“Should I formally relinquish your second banana back to you, now that this is done?”

“Hey,” Max said, but Kinga laughed.

“Did he do a good job?”

“ _Hey_ ,” Max said again, and she squeezed him. “I did everything he asked me to.”

“And then some,” Jonah agreed. “He’s a good one.”

“Thank you,” Max said, sounding a little aggrieved still. “Let’s not do that again, though. I’m not comfortable being anyone’s second banana except yours, my love.”

“I can’t catch appendicitis again,” Kinga said. “Hopefully there won’t be any more medical emergencies. It’s a miracle I made it through this one.” She took the bath puff out of Max’s hands and started washing herself, then dropped her hand with a little whimper. “I can’t do this. I’m getting tunnel vision every time I lift my arms.”

“I told you to let us take care of you,” Max said sternly, taking it back. “You’re so stubborn.”

“Seriously,” Jonah agreed, shifting how he held her up so Max could wash her more easily. “Although that’s a given, with her chosen career path…”

“Mad science isn’t for the faint of heart,” she said, and sighed when Max went for her sides. “Don’t tickle me, I think I’d die.”

“You won’t die, you’d just hate me,” Max said easily. “And you never mean it when you say that you hate me.” He kept his touch firm though, and she nodded.

“It’s true.”

“You’re very convincing when you say it though,” Jonah said. “I legitimately thought you hated him until you brought me down here.”

“I wanted you to fear me,” she said, and patted Jonah’s leg. “Kind of hard to fear me when you’re keeping me upright, though.”

“Oh, I don’t know, you’re still pretty terrifying sometimes,” Jonah said. “Although today I found out that Max can be terrifying too.” Max looked surprised, and Jonah reminded him, “You did threaten to burn me alive today.”

“Max, you darling man,” Kinga said. “What did I do to deserve that kind of loyalty?”

“You didn’t have to do anything,” Max said, bending down to wash her legs. “But the fact that you love me would have gotten it a long way there if I hadn’t already given you my loyalty before you ever told me that.” She ran her fingers through his hair and he smiled up at her.

“You guys are cute, in… kind of an Addams Family sort of way,” Jonah said, and Kinga laughed.

“Morticia Addams: style goals,” she said.

“Don’t ever dye your hair black. You’re perfect as you are,” Max said.

“Oh god no. I did that once in high school. Worst idea ever, I looked horrible.”

“I can’t imagine you looking horrible,” Jonah said, and she snorted.

“I’m pretty sure I looked horrible a couple hours ago with a fever of 102 in a puddle of my own sweat, but you can keep complimenting me anyways.” 

“Do you feel better now?” Jonah asked.

“A hundred percent,” she said. “The lidocaine’s still working, I’m clean, I’m naked between two really cute people…”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Max said, straightening up. “You’re so tired you can’t keep your eyes open.”

“Also true.” 

“If you can get her dried off, I’ll be out in a minute,” Max said. “I can change the sheets and we can finally get some sleep.”

“Sure thing,” Jonah said. By the time they’d both dried off, Max was out of the shower having washed himself very quickly, and Max carried all their clothes back to the bedroom and tossed them in a pile with the old sheets. Kinga was quite happy to stay cradled in Jonah’s arms while Max made the bed, and she carefully peeled off the tape when he set her down, then stretched out across the bed and let out a mighty yawn.

“What are you doing?” Max asked when Jonah hesitated by the door. “You’re not going anywhere. We’re not done with you yet.” 

“You aren’t?” Kinga shifted over to the middle of the bed and patted the clear side.

“No. Come here. You think we’d just kick you back up there now? Don’t be silly.” He shrugged and settled down next to her, belly down and with his head turned to look at the two of them. 

“Is this going to make things weird?”

“How much weirder can they get?” Max asked. “We owed you before, now we owe you our literal lives--”

“Just my life,” Kinga interjected.

“No. Both our lives.”

“But you’re still going to experiment on me,” Jonah said, and Kinga yawned again.

“We’ll figure that out later,” she said. “Sleep now. Please.” Max didn’t have to be told twice, as tired as he was, and Kinga fell asleep pretty quickly too. Jonah just watched them quietly for a little while, wondering what exactly the fallout of this bizarre day was going to be, but after a while sleep claimed him too. By the time he roused later, Max was nowhere to be found, and Kinga had cuddled up to him in her sleep, clinging to him like a life-sized teddy bear. He checked her forehead again, but the fever had gone and not returned.

Max came back a little while later with a pot and three oversized mugs on a tray. “Hungry?” he asked, and Jonah nodded. By the time the wonderful smell reached him, it had gotten through to Kinga through her dreams, and she mumbled something incoherent as she blinked her eyes open. “Good evening,” Max said. “It’s just after ten. I made your favorite.”

“Pterodactyl noodle soup?” He nodded. “Oh, Max, you’re the best.”

“I try,” he said modestly. “I think everyone in this room is the best in a couple of different ways.”

“Jonah is the best life saver,” Kinga said. “I’m the best life ruiner.”

“Accurate,” Jonah said, “although I’d argue that my life isn’t exactly ruined from where I’m standing now.”

“We’ll talk about it after dinner,” she said with a smirk. Jonah wasn’t sure whether that expression boded well for him or not, but he was willing to wait a little while to find out. Dinner, at least, boded excellently. Max was a very good cook, and pterodactyl tasted a lot like chicken.

**Author's Note:**

> I commissioned art from Lotolle on Tumblr and it's so cute! NSFW because it's the shower scene.
> 
> http://thylakhaleesi.tumblr.com/post/164381973373/bitch-n-stitch-speccygeekgrrl-mystery


End file.
